Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to address the motion in relation to the release of information under the Home Insulation Safety Program and the Foil Insulation Safety Program. These two programs were put in place as a consequence and a recognition of the catastrophic failure of the Home Insulation Program. The Home Insulation Program—or the pink batts program as it has become colloquially known—has been arguably the greatest failure in program delivery in Australia since the Second World War.

The facts speak for themselves. We start with 207 house fires according to the Auditor-General’s most recent report. We move to 1,500 potentially deadly electrified roofs. Further still, we see that there has been a failure rate on the first 13,800 roofs inspected of 29 per cent, which have either substandard or dangerous insulation installations in some way or another. Let us assume that, because they have been targeted the figure is lower than that, we are still talking about well over 200,000 homes with potentially dangerous, deadly or substandard insulation. All of this leads to a roof repair bill of a minimum of $680 million, which could climb as high as a billion dollars.

But none of this compares with the tragic linkages associated with this program. Four young lives were lost through association with this program. The coroner’s cases will follow. There have been prosecutions, but it is absolutely clear that there has never been a full and thorough investigation of the linkages that this program has had to those tragedies. That is why the opposition fully supports a royal commission. The Auditor-General was not empowered to examine the linkages between these tragedies and the program: the quality of the program design at ministerial level, the execution of ministerial conduct, or any of those elements. The Auditor-General was only empowered to deal with the program delivery by the administration, not by the executive. It is a fundamental failing of transparency under this government and there must be, and should be, a full royal commission, and we will prosecute that case going forward.

Today, this motion addresses an urgent, immediate and imminent requirement on the route to that royal commission. It is about the disclosure of public safety information which has been withheld from the public. In particular, the motion notes that the Australian government has not released the figures for the full rate of defects discovered under the Home Insulation Safety Plan and the Foil Insulation Safety Program. It calls on the government to release the full rate of defects discovered under both the Home Insulation Safety Plan and the Foil Insulation Safety Program and, in particular, it calls on the government to release information on the asbestos problems discovered under the Home Insulation Program. The figures which comprise that last element were today the subject of a campaign by unions which identified the Home Insulation Program as the third wave of the great asbestos risks of the last 30 years.

It was not the Liberal Party, it was not the federal coalition, it was not former members; it was the union movement which this very day identified the Home Insulation Program as the third wave in the tragic march of failures relating to asbestos and the exposure of workers, the exposure of inspectors and, potentially, the exposure of homeowners as a consequence of the government’s Home Insulation Program. Against that background, it is negligence, folly and denial to keep these figures about defect rates and public safety from the public.

The government’s task is clear. Its duty is to ensure that, no matter how painful it is to the members of the government, the full facts about public safety are disclosed and the full facts about the risks to homeowners are disclosed. The government’s argument is very simple: ‘Because we have been targeting inspections it may give a falsely high figure.’ One hundred thousand inspections have been carried out. That is an enormous sample and that figure will give a representative view of the failure rate within those houses that have been subject to insulation from the least reputable installers and the most dodgy fly-by-nighters. There is no doubt about that; that cannot be in question. What we see is very clear: that 100,000 homes will give a real and profound indication of the rate of failure. As we know, there has been an extraordinary level of failure under this program.

The argument that it is too much to let the public know about the rate of failure and the rate of risk underestimates the public. The public, if given the right information, can make the right decisions. But it also shows contempt for the public, and that is contrary to the spirit of transparency with which this government was installed and contrary to the agreements around transparency. I would respectfully say to all those Independents who will consider how they vote on this motion that transparency must rule. There can be no doubt about that.

Against that background, take not our word, take the word of the industry associations who themselves warned the government well over a year ago that the Home Insulation Program was a deathtrap waiting to happen. The National Electrical and Communications Association has written to the Independents. James Tinslay, the Chief Executive Officer, said in a letter last week:

… the National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) was the first body to warn the then minister, the Hon. Peter Garrett, of the potential dangers faced by the then proposed Home Insulation Program.

He went on to say:

NECA’s members and their employees who work on domestic premises are well aware of the risks related to working in roof spaces …

He also says:

Due to the confidentiality provisions of the government inspection contracts, NECA members are not able to provide details of the numbers of live roof spaces or those that have the potential to become live. This makes it very difficult for an industry to plan on how to address the ongoing dangers.

Electrocution is a potential risk from nondisclosure, according to the chief executive officer of one of the two national bodies. Mr Tinslay in his letter went on to say:

We believe that the release of this information is essential for NECA members, fire fighting and other emergency services, state electrical safety regulators, other tradesmen and especially householders themselves.

The advice could not be clearer. The evidence has been palpable. The government ignored 26 warnings before the program was finally wound down. Throughout the second half of 2009 the opposition called for an Auditor-General’s inquiry, the first day of which was 28 August 2009, almost a year and a half ago. The risks were manifest, the warnings were obvious, the steps were ignored and there were tragic consequences.

But it is not just the one body that has pointed out the risks. The CEO of Master Electricians Australia, Mr Malcolm Richards, has written to me. In his letter dated 19 November—last week—he set out the fact that there are risks to homeowners through electrical faults. He said:

This finding is based, in part, on the initial results of the Federal Government’s Foil Insulation Safety Program … which were reported in the media earlier this year.

He went on to say:

We note that the full results of the safety inspections have not yet been released …

He says that his body would support ‘any effort to have these figures made public in order to add to public understanding of the level of pre-existing electrical faults in Australian homes’.

There is no doubt that the two leading bodies in Australia who represent those who work with electricity want the figures about the Home Insulation Program released. There is no doubt that the government is in denial. This motion should be supported. It is about public safety information. All members, I hope, will be able to back it. (Time expired)

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